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Three heroin saves in 12 hours in Toms River

Toms River police rescued three people from suspected heroin overdoses in a 12-hour span between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, a cluster that "does raise alarms for us," department spokesman Ralph J. Stocco said.

Toms River police rescued three people from suspected heroin overdoses in a 12-hour span between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, a cluster that "does raise alarms for us," department spokesman Ralph J. Stocco said.

But officials have already seen the limits of the drug and the power of addiction.

Last week, on May 16, a 19-year-old woman in Brick who overdosed on suspected fentanyl, an opiate, was revived by Narcan, according to the Prosecutor's Office. At 10:30 the morning of May 19, police were called to her home again for a fentanyl overdose. She was pronounced dead 20 minutes later, the office said.

"Plain and simple, for some folks it's a second chance they can make good on," Prosecutor's Office spokesman Al Della Fave said. "For others, it's not. But it's a life, so you've got to take a shot that the individual will have an awakening."

Police are not sure what led to the spike in overdoses between Wednesday or Thursday, but "the main concern" is that a bad batch may be circulating the area, Stocco said.

"It's not unusual for us to have a heroin overdose a week," he said. "Three in a 12-hour period, that's worrisome for us."

The first overdose was reported at 5:45 Wednesday evening. A 26-year-old woman was reported by her boyfriend to be unresponsive at an Oak Ridge Parkway address. Paramedics administered the Narcan and she was sent to Community Medical Center here, according to police.

Less than 45 minutes later, at 6:24 p.m., police were called to the parking lot of The Office lounge on Main Street, where a 24-year-old man was found unconscious in the passenger seat of a car. A female friend of the man had picked him up in Berkeley, "and she immediately observed that he was under the influence of something," police said in a statement. She drove him to Toms River, and then he passed out, police said. Police and EMS administered Narcan and took the man to the hospital.

Thursday morning, at 6:35 a.m., police were called to the Sun & Sand Motel on Route 37 for a 32-year-old man who was unresponsive in his bed. Police and EMS delivered a dose of Narcan and he was "transported for additional medical treatment," police said.

The three saves are in addition to two others in Toms River since the Prosecutor's Office launched a program equipping police officers with the life-saving drug at the beginning of April, Stocco said. There have been 19 saves in Ocean County since launching the program, according to the Prosecutor's Office. Toms River and Brick EMS, however, also carry the drug and do not report their rescues to the Prosecutor's Office, so "there may be another dozen out there," Della Fave said.

The Narcan program is in response to a recent surge in heroin and opiate overdose deaths in Ocean County. Last year the county more than doubled its overdose deaths from the year before, becoming the epicenter of a heroin crisis in New Jersey.

As of last week 26 people had died of overdoses, 21 of them linked to heroin, according to the Prosecutor's Office. At this point last year nearly 50 people were dead of a drug overdose.

Anyone with information on drug distribution in Toms River is urged to contact police at its confidential phone number: 732-349-0150, extension 1272.